Chandigarh, Mar 17 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar Monday gave a clarion call for unity and invited all estranged leaders to rejoin the party, obeying the directive of the Akal Takht.
After a meeting of the party's parliamentary board, he said, "I appeal to all leaders, including members of the five-member committee, to obey the Akal Takht's directive and strive for unity in the 'Panth' by erasing all differences to strengthen the 'Panthic' forces and defeat agencies trying to damage the SAD."
Referring to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj's speech on the occasion of 'Hola Mohalla', Bhundar said, "It is true that there are many references in Sikh history that the 'quom' has always prospered as a community when united. We should learn from the past."
The SAD working president said he had earlier appealed to the estranged leaders to join the SAD's membership drive.
"I had in the past offered them to take the membership slips of the party and become a part of the membership drive. I reiterate this offer and appeal to them to take membership copies and get them filled in order to get delegates of their choice elected as part of the organisational elections," he said.
Bhundar was apparently referring to rebel party leaders, including Prem Singh Chandumajra, Bibi Jagir Kaur and Gurpartap Singh Wadala.
He disclosed that the SAD would attend the all-party meeting convened by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on March 22 to discuss the proposed delimitation of parliamentary constituencies.
"We feel that this exercise will create an imbalance in the country with states which followed family planning programmes being put at a disadvantage.
"The exercise is also against the concept of federalism with some states like Uttar Pradesh likely to witness an increase in Lok Sabha seats to 150 while there would be a marginal increase in seats for states like Punjab and Haryana," Bhundar said.
He also disclosed that the Akali delegation would also give its inputs on the Centre's New Education Policy that would "adversely affect" regional languages.
Last Saturday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann accused the BJP-led Centre of trying to "eliminate its political opponents through the faulty execution" of the proposed delimitation exercise and asserted that all like-minded parties will join hands against this attempt to "muzzle" democracy.
A row has erupted over the exercise with an all-party meeting in Tamil Nadu opposing the population-based delimitation of parliamentary constituencies.
